isoléevsisoléesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“isolée” and “isolées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,179
“isolée” frequency rank
#14,292
“isolées” frequency rank
24471
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature isolée isolées
Definition Féminin singulier de isolé. Féminin pluriel de isolé.

Same sound, different letters: isolée vs isolées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. isolée runs 6 letters (VCVCVV) against isolées's 7 (VCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
isolée
7 ch
isolées

Ear matches; page differs - isolée and isolées

This is the hard kind. isolée and isolées are pronounced identically (\i.zɔ.le\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “isolée” sits inside “isolées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

isolée is recorded at frequency rank #10,179, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.zɔ.le\. isolées is at rank #14,292, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.zɔ.le\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 24471, this pair ranks #346,445 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of isolée vs isolées

Shared letters: eilosé. Private to "isolée": -. Private to "isolées": -.

"isolée" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV  ·  "isolées" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "isolée" and "isolées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\i.zɔ.le\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "isolée" vs "isolées" - which ranks higher?
"isolée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,179 in our French list, against #14,292 for "isolées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "isolée" / "isolées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "isolée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "isolées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #346,445 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "isolée" and "isolées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isola vs isolée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #346,445 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list